January, 1900. 
57 
The F» S. Perkins Album of Antiquities. 
A Descriptive Notice of this Important Contribution to American Archaeology. 
By CHAS. H. DOERFLINGER. 
The researches of the nineteenth century in anthropology, tak- 
ing this term in its broad sense to include beside other branches 
of science the history, anatomy, physiology, psychology, education 
and civilization of man, have, under the leadership of foremost 
minds, developed as never before in the history of the human 
race, the comparative methods of study. Psycho-physiology, one 
of the youngest daughters of universal science, which is rapidly 
taking the place of the old-time "mental philosophy," teaches us 
that the development of the individual human soul as well as the 
individual hurnan body takes places in the same general stage 
that characterized the evolution of the human race, and that our 
method of education, to be productive of the happiest results, must 
accommodate itself to the same law of nature and follow the same, 
the natural channels, which are the channels of least resistance. 
The work to which attention is here invited, while it will be of 
general scientific interest, will be of especial merit as an auxiliary 
for comparative studies in archaeology, and the accompanying text 
by Professor Frederick Starr, who is in charge of the Departrnent 
of Anthropology of the University of Chicago, will be a valuable 
•contribution to the branch of science it treats of. 
Of the Perkins' collection of American relics, President C. K. 
Adams, of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, says : 
'T suppose, without doubt, this collection is the finest of its 
kind in the world. It is doubtful whether it can under any cir- 
cumstances ever be equaled." 
Dr. Geo. W. Peckham, of the Milwaukee Public Library, says : 
''The Perkins album is a most important contribution to sci- 
ence. It is a magnificant work and full of interest for all people of 
intelligence. I hope that you will be able to carry it through, and 
I have reason to believe that you will." 
Requested to say a few words about the enterprise, Professor 
Starr, the editor of the Album, wrote as follows : 
'Tn some respects the Perkins 'Album of ArJtiquities' is 
unique. Among features worthy of notice are the following : 
"i. It is probable that no attempt has ever been made to 
publish a work on prehistoric archaeology in which all the speci- 
mens illustrated were reproduced in color fac-simile. Works with 
colored plates have indeed been pubhshed, but the illustrations 
could not be called fac-similes. 
